Pippi's Wishing Star
by Pre-Animation Man
Summary: After Pippi learns about making wishes on stars, he tells all his friends so that they can make wishes, too


The newest fallen snow squeaked under the shifting feet of Pinkie Pie and Pippi Longstocking, as they climbed to the top of their hill. The girl of Very Little Brain looked in awe at the star whose cheerful sparkling lit and colored the cold night sky.

"Pinkie Pie, " sighed the very impressed girl, "is that twinkly one really your very own wishing star? REALLY?"

"Absolutely!" laughed Pinkie Pie. "Would you like to wish for something?"

"Oh my, yes!" responded Pippi. "Very much!"

"First, you're going to have to say the very special wishing rhyme," explained Pinkie Pie and he recited. "Flap like a bird, Jump like a fish, Stand up, sit down, Wish-wish-WISH!"

"Now" he said. "Cover your eyes. Pippi Longstocking, and make our wish!"

Closing his eyes and smacking his lips, Pippi said, "I wish I had something sweet . . . for ME!"

Pinkie Pie quickly brought a pot of honey out from hiding and placed it at Pippi's feet.

At the sight of the honey pot, Pippi launched into a mouthful of wishes. "My goodness! I wish for a pot of honey for Applejack . . . and one for me. A pot for Babs Seed . . . and another one for me . . . and ..."

"You don't want to do that, Pippi," interrupted Pinkie Pie quickly. "It's a very small wishing star, " he explained, "and too many wishes might wear it out. "

"Oh," said Pippi, drooping. Then a thought came to him (as they usually did when the possibility of more honey was concerned), and he added, "Can we come back tomorrow night?"

"Of course "we can," laughed Pinkie Pie.

Pippi waved a polite good-bye to the twinkling star and chuckled. "I think he winked at me."

The next morning found Pippi slurping his wished-for pot of honey But all at once, the slurping stopped.

"Is there anything sadder than an empty pot of honey?" Pippi Longstocking asked himself.

Then it all came back to him.

"I'll simply have to wish another wish, and ..." His brow furrowed as an unhappy thought tickled the back of his heedful of fluff.

"Oh dear," he groaned. "I think I remember that I've forgotten the wishing rhyme!"

"This, " he told himself, "is going to take some very large think-think-THINKING!"

Later, Pippi was strolling through the woods hoping that his think-think-thinker would work better if he wasn't sitting down on it.

"Hop like a banana, jump like a bean . . . ," he mumbled to himself. "No," he sighed, "that isn't it."

At that very moment, Pippi's very small friend Applejack was pushing a snowball up a hill. As the snowball grew larger and larger, Applejack pushed more and more slowly. Until finally, picking up the very small animal, the huge snowball rolled him back down the hill!

Applejack cried aloud, "Oh, d-dear," as Pippi was step up in the rolling snowball, too!

The snowball disappeared with a loud thump when it hit a tree and left the surprised Pippi and Applejack looking at each other in snow-covered wonder.

Pippi was explaining his predicament to Applejack when they happened upon Applebloom playing checkers with himself.

"Hoo-hoo-poof" he hooted as he trounced himself yet again. "I win, I win! Oh, I always win. If only there were two o' me, then things'd be FUN!"

"Why, hello, Applebloom!" Pippi greeted him.

"Pippi Longstocking," shouted Applebloom. "Wanna play?"

"We can't, Applebloom," explained Applejack. "We're going to wish on Pinkie Pie's wishing star!"

"A wishing star!" exclaimed Applebloom. "Can I pretty please with anchovies on it go an' wish tor another Applebloom?"

"Well, you see, " began Pippi, "I can't—"

Applebloom threw his arms around the startled bear. "Thanks, buddy bear!"

So the three of them went on together, traipsing through the wood as Pippi tried to remember what he'd forgotten. "Flap like an armadillo, hoot like a goose . . . Oh BOTHER bother."

No one was more surprised than the three friends when they came upon Babs Seed fending off an army of bugs with a frying pan.

"Oh no!" shouted Applebloom. "Babs Seed's out numbered a billion to one! What shall we do?"

"Build a snowman?" suggested Applejack.

It wasn't long before Applejack's attempt at another giant snowball had chased the bugs away and left the four friends covered with snow and sitting next to a tree.

Babs Seed was very grateful that the bugs had been sent packing. "But," he moaned, "I wish there were some way to keep them away for good!"

Applejack and Applebloom wasted no time in informing Babs Seed of Pippi's wishing star.

"Don't fret, Pippi Longstocking," said Applebloom. "We'll cure you."

First, Babs Seed tried "scaring" Pippi's memory's back. "It works for hiccups, doesn't it?" he asked with a snitf.

Not to be defeated, Applebloom quickly stood Pippi on his head.

"Memories all flow down to his footsies, " he explained. "Do you remember who I am, buddy bear?"

"Why. yes, " said Pippi. "You're Applebloom."

"It worked! It worked!" declared Applebloom

"But," Pippi interrupted Applebloom, "I always remember who you are, Applebloom."

"Oh yeah, I forgot," said the embarrassed Applebloom.

Applebloom and Babs Seed decided to tie a hot water bottle to Pippi's head in order to warm the memories up, but began to argue about whether Pippi should sit down or stand up while he was waiting for things to get warm.

"Sit down!" announced Applebloom.

"Stand up," countered Babs Seed.

And suddenly, it all came back to Pippi Longstocking!

"Flap like a bird, Jump like a hsh, stand up, sit down, wish-wish-WISH!" he recited happily.

"C'mon, gang! Let's go wish if Tryin!" shouted Applebloom.

"It's awfully hungry out tonight," Pippi told himselt as he hurried after the others. "I do hope I'm not too late."

Pippi Longstocking arrived on top of the knoll to find his friends all wishing their wishes!

"I wish there was another Applebloom," said Applebloom.

"I wish those bugs would go away tor ever and ever!" pleaded Babs Seed.

"I w-wish I could build a snowman all by myself," said Applejack very politely.

As they left everyone thanked Pippi for sharing the wishing star.

"I wonder," Pippi asked himselh "how many wishes a wlshing star can give?"

As Pippi Longstocking closed his eyes and concentrated on repeating the wishing rhyme, he didn't notice the sky filling with clouds.

"I wish," he said finally, "for a small — but not TOO small — smackeral of something sweet."

But when Pippi opened his eyes, the star was gone. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a star shoot to the ground in a blazing streak!

"Oh no!" cried the distressed bear. "Pinkie Pie's star! I wished it OUT!"

As Pippi walked down the knoll, he didn't see the clouds disperse behind him and the wishing star twinkling as brightly as ever.

"I used it up before my friends' wishes could come true, too," Pippi glumly reminded himself.

"There's only one thing to do!" he announced. "If the wishing star can't make their wishes come true, then I WILL! I hope."

The next day Pippi pretended very hard to be Applejack's snowman, another Applebloom for Applebloom, and a bug wrangler for Babs Seed all at the same time.

But the effort was all too much for one not very fast-movmg bear.

"This wish-come-truing is very tiring," panted the weary Pippi Longstocking. "No wonder the wishing star got pooped."

It wasn't long before his friends realized what was going on.

With a little coaxing, they finally got the whole story from a very sorry Pippi Longstocking.

"But, Pippi," the suddenly anxious Applejack asked, "what will happen when Pinkie Pie comes to make a wish?"

After an anxious moment of his own, Pippi became very serious. "There's going to be a wishing star out tonight, or my name's not Winnie the Pooh!"

Before the night gre-w very much older. Pippi w^as dressed up as the wishing star — each limb a point and one more for the top of his head full of fluff. Then he was carefully perched on a bent-over sapling.

"Do you think," Pippi asked the others, "that if I'm far enough away, Pinkie Pie will believe I'm the wishing star?"

"Just remember to look twinkly," suggested Applebloom.

"Are you very sure about this. Pippi Longstocking?" asked Babs Seed.

"Well . . . , " began Pippi thoughtfully.

But before he could finish, Applebloom released the sapfing, sending Pippi trying into the night sky.

Pippi didn't fly as very tar up as he thought he would. In fact, his pointed head ended up dangling Irom a tree limb, and there was Pinkie Pie walking up the knoll below him.

"Uh, hello, Pinkie Pie," said Pippi. "Er, the wishing star — that's me — is over here tonight. "

"So you are," Pinkie Pie agreed. "But why? "

"Why?" babbled Pippi. "Er, I came down for a closer look and this tree grabbed me and — um — oh, do make a wish."

"All right," said Pinkie Pie. "Flap like a bird, jump like a fish, stand up, sit down, wish-wish-WISH!"

"I wish my best triend were beside me," he announced.

At that precise moment, Pippi's costume decided that it had hung up in that tree long enough. The next thing Pippi knew, he had fallen into Pinkie Pie's arms!

"Why, Pippi Longstocking," exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "My wish came true."

"How can that be? " said a not-a-little-confused Pippi. "I didn't listen to you, and I wore out your wishing star."

"Silly old bear," laughed Pinkie Pie. "Look."

Pippi looked up into a sky empty of clouds where the wishing star was the brightest star of all.

"You mean it was there all the time?" asked Pippi.

"Didn't your friends' wishes all come true?" asked Pinkie Pie.

"Yes," answered Pippi, "sort ol. But I thought I did them."

"Perhaps with a little help from the wishing star," suggested Pinkie Pie.

"Stars certainly are smart," said Pippi.

"Let's go home, Pippi Longstocking," said Pinkie Pie.

"Just one moment," said Pippi. "I want to thank the wishing star."

"Me, too. Pippi," Pinkie Pie smiled.

And on the snow-covered knoll beneath the twinkhng star, the boy and the bear silently thanked the wishing star tor their most important wish come true — each other!


End file.
